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Monthly Archives: July 2007

Well, is it? They hype, the fuss, the late night book sales?
Is the story worthy of all this drama?
Does the plot and character development warrant all the media attention?

Sure.

And how do I know? I have only read the last chapter at about 1 a.m., but the smile on Ash’s face when she saw her copy, purchased from Tesco in Trowbridge just after midnight by big Mike, said it all.

I have to share this note recieved via e-mail last week……who knows if it is true. I hope so…

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

I particularly like, 2, 4 and 8. Much of the yoof of today would be well advised to listed. However, like us, they will make their own mistakes.

Big Mike alerted me to the fact that today is Bill Watterson’s birthday.

Who?

Bill Watterson, creator of the greatest cartoon strip ever: Calvin and Hobbes. The six year old boy with the stuffed tiger alter ego ran in the South China Morning Post (amongst many others) and, when withdrawn in a ‘revamp’, attracted so many complaints that it was reinstated the following week.

To understand the mind of this genius you only need to know one quote: